BHUBANESWAR: Odisha government is all set to roll out a new initiative Surakshit Matritva Aashwasan (Suman) in order to further reduce the maternal mortality ratio (MMR) and neonatal mortality rate (NMR) and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) before the target.
Even as Odisha has registered 14 points decline in the past two years, the MMR stood at 136 per one lakh live births. The rate of decline in NMR was very slow as it dropped by only 1.2 point - from 28.2 to 27 during the period.
The two important health indicators are above the national average of 103 and 25 respectively. The country has set the target to end preventable deaths of newborns and children under 5 years of age and bring down MMR to 70 per one lakh births by 2030.
Suman is aimed at achieving zero preventable maternal and neonatal deaths through quality care provided with dignity and respect. The comprehensive initiative will subsume all existing maternal health programmes and provide service guarantee for every woman and newborn visiting the public health facilities.
Although Odisha’s institutional delivery has increased from 55.4 per cent (NFHS-4) to 92.2 pc (NFHS-5), the MMR, NMR and stillbirth rate (10) are still considerably high. The NMR of the State is the seventh highest in the country as per NFHS-5.
“The Suman initiative will help mentoring and capacity building of the service providers. The capacity of healthcare providers from the lower level facilities will be focused to prevent congestion in the higher level facilities and strengthen the system to provide good quality services closer to the community,” he said.
As part of the initiative, the State government has decided to set up a Center of Excellence (CoE) for guidance, mentoring and capacity building of the service providers. The maternal health CoE will function at Obstetrics and Gynaecology (O&G) department of SCB Medical College and Hospital.
The CoE will function in a hub and spoke model. The SCB MCH will be hub and the other medical colleges will function as spoke and will support the CoE for all technical purposes at regional level.